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DENVER, Colo. – An appeals court has upheld a decision that a now-infamous 2014 execution did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The State of Oklahoma executed Clayton Lockett for killing 19-year-old Stephanie Nieman in 1999. The resulting 43-minute procedure featured a never-before-used combination of execution drugs and went awry as Lockett awoke from his unconscious state, twitching and convulsing on the table. Lockett’s brother, Gary, sued several Oklahoma officials on the grounds that Clayton’s execution was “prolonged, painful, and torturous,” and constituted […]

OKLAHOMA – The temporary head of our state prison system said, if executions go forward this year, they’ll be ready. Interim DOC Director Joe Allbaugh said they’ve had two sessions practicing how an execution would happen with new procedures in place, all while DOC is still under the microscope in a grand jury investigation. It has been more than a year now since the execution of Charles Warner, who was killed by potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride. The same drug mix-up […]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A California mother is furious after she says her son’s pirate ship has racist connotations. Ida Lockett says her son was excited to receive the pirate ship set for his fifth birthday. “I spent the weekend putting it together,” she told KOVR. After putting the set together, she noticed something different about one of the characters. The dark-skinned character had no shoes and tattered pants. It also came with instructions to put some sort of neck piece on […]

After a five-hour delay, Georgia death row inmate Kelly Gissendaner was executed early Wednesday morning for her role in the killing of her husband. Gissendaner was scheduled to die at 7 p.m. Tuesday, but her lawyers filed appeals to state and federal courts in her final hours to try to spare her life. Her children had to make a heart-wrenching choice Tuesday: go see their mother one last time, or make a final appeal in front of the Georgia Board […]

(CNN) — Richard Glossip has spent 17 years in a tiny cell in H Unit of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, close to the death chamber. Every execution is a reminder that his turn will come one day. The last one was Clayton Lockett‘s. “I’ve seen it on TV,” says Glossip, 51, in a telephone call from death row. He says he’s reconciled with his fate, though he has always maintained his innocence. He says he has long believed that without […]

McALESTER, Okla.– The state of Oklahoma completed its first execution, Thursday night, since the botched lethal injection of a death row inmate last April. Charles Frederick Warner was pronounced dead at 7:28 p.m. The man convicted of raping and killing 11-month-old Adrianna Waller in 1997 was put to death on Thursday after the Supreme Court denied Warner’s appeal. One of Warner’s attorneys, Assistant Federal Public Defender Dale Baich, filed a motion to stay the execution with the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday. He argued the use […]

UPDATE: 1/15/15 7:33 p.m. The Department of Corrections confirms Oklahoma inmate Charles Frederick Warner has been executed at 7:28 p.m. UPDATE: 1/15/15 6:20PM. The U.S. Supreme Court has denied the appeal of Charles Frederick Warner clearing the way for the execution to proceed. Four justices dissented — Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan. Writing for the four, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said questions about Oklahoma’s proposed method — and its risks — “are especially important now, given States’ increasing reliance on […]

McAlester, Okla. – Richard Glossip is scheduled to die Wednesday despite widespread concerns about his trial and the way Oklahoma plans to execute him. Glossip was convicted of murder for the 1997 death of motel owner Barry Van Treese, though Glossip wasn’t the actual killer. The man who bludgeoned Van Treese to death, Justin Sneed, testified that Glossip hired him for the murder. But jurors weren’t presented with evidence that Sneed gave contradictory accounts to police about what happened, wrote […]

Throughout the history of capital punishment in America, states have reviewed and revised execution methods in the interest of finding a more “humane” option. Hanging was the standard for much of the 19th century, as Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito noted in the court’s recent ruling related to capital punishment New York led the charge in the 1880s to trade the hangman’s noose for the electric chair based on a legislative commission’s finding that electrocution was “the most humane and […]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld the use of a controversial drug for lethal injection in executions. The ruling was 5-4 with Justice Samuel Alito writing for the majority, along with John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. “The prisoners failed to identify a known and available alternative method of execution that entails a lesser risk of pain, a requirement of all Eighth Amendment method-of- execution claims,” Alito wrote. “Second, the District Court did not establish that […]

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A sharply divided — and at times testy — Supreme Court took up Wednesday a case questioning the lethal injection protocol used for Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett’s botched execution in 2014. The hearing revealed a deep tension on the part of some of the conservatives who expressed concern that the opponents to the death penalty are making it very difficult for the states to carry out executions using lethal doses of drugs. “Let’s be honest about what’s […]